At the end of my freshman year of high school, my band director announced that in June of 2024 our band would be traveling to Hawaii.
On paper, this sounded amazing to tiny freshman me. Halfway through the week, I realized that a whole week with band kids in close quarters was not the greatest idea.
As stated previously, this trip was announced at the end of my freshman year. It then took our band two whole years and several fundraisers before we set foot in the airport to take flight to Hawaii.
It felt surreal by the time we had actually boarded the plane because of how long the trip had been talked about. The flight itself somehow felt longer than the two years leading up to the trip and stretched over eight hours.
Our itinerary was packed all seven days, with two of the days being reserved for travel. We were touring a Dole Plantation, performing at Pearl Harbor and much more. There were so many great things to do. I mean, we were in Hawaii for crying out loud.
It wasn’t until the third day that it became apparent this wasn’t truly a vacation of any sort. There was a rule that everyone had to always be in groups of three or more, even in hotel rooms.
For someone as introverted as me, this was not pleasant. For a whole week, the only time alone you ever had was when you were going to the bathroom, and still there were always people on the other side of that door.
Imagine being on vacation with family and how frustrated everyone is with each other by the end of the trip. Now multiply that family by 30. Imagine how frustrated everyone is with each other by the end of that trip.
Band kids are an interesting bunch, even in small intervals. Having to spend a whole week in close quarters with them is teetering on too much.
It didn’t help that there was only one day of actual performance; the rest of the time was just a literal vacation with a bunch of people that no one really wanted to be on vacation with.
The performance part of the trip was amazing. Our band got to perform at Pearl Harbor, which is just a phenomenal experience to have and definitely made me appreciate our armed forces more.
We also got to perform in the largest open-air shopping center in the world, called the Ala Moana Center. There were over 350 shops and restaurants, and it was 2.4 million square feet large.
As much as the trip got a little unbearable at times, I would always choose to do it. The performances were once-in-a-lifetime experiences that I would not trade for anything, and our band director did an amazing job of planning all of the excursions for us.
The best way to get through trips like these is to always look on the bright side, because overall the trip was amazing and it definitely shaped me more as a person.
Autumn Lemke can be reached at [email protected].
